Hey guys, my mom or my brother or someone in the house (I’m not that sure ive only heard like two people mention it), cought a praying mantis outside, and there keeping it in a TUPPERWARE CONTAINER with a few leaves In it. I’m afraid that if it has mites or something it could infect my reptile collection, thankfully it not in the reptile room though. Also I feel really bad for it having to live in that tupperware. I don’t know what to do, so somebody please tell me what to do, or what too and too not worry about.
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Reptile mites are reptile mites. They do not feed on anything else. Reptile mites are not native to anywhere in the United States. You get them from other reptile Keepers not from the outside.
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Gonna second this.
Insect mites are different. However that means they can infect other insects and arachnids. So be careful about the hissing cockroach.
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I don’t want to be the stick in the mud here but mantises are delicate creatures. If it were me I would try to convince whoever caught this little guy to release it back to wild because it probably won’t last very long.
Mantises eat tiny insects from pinhead crickets on up. They do well in butterfly tents. In other words they need special care to keep them alive indoors……
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As much as I hate to say it, this is only a good idea if the mantis can be IDed as a native species. Unfortunately the US has a lot of introduced mantids.
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So if this mantis is not native to the area it was caught in, it would not be feasible to release it back? For ecological reasons? I don’t know if this is the right word?
So basically it could be a species that was introduced by man? Like letting go of a domestic mouse bred for feeders into the wild? I am trying to understand what you are saying……. 
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Yep, basically that. There were a bunch of mantids that have been released (either by accident or on purpose) and taken hold throughout the US. There is some argument as to how much ecological impact they actually have, but they’re not very discerning in what they consider food.
If it can be IDed before release, that would be best. It’s not the end of the world if it isn’t, just not ideal.
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Ok that makes sense!
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Good for you @fnek, your caring is a good thing! No worries at all for your snake about this, but it’s great to ask rather than blithely assume all is well and find out it really wasn’t.
As for the mantis itself, if you’re in Maryland, I am kind of surprised they found one outdoors and active in January. I admittedly know very little about their wintering habits, but I don’t recall ever seeing them in the cooler months in Indiana or Kentucky.
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Your reptiles are totally safe. If it makes you feel better, I keep a wild-caught spider in the same room with my snakes.
A Tupperware isn’t necessarily the worst thing to keep an insect in. Remember that the animal isn’t going to care if they’re living in a $50 purpose-made acrylic enclosure or a free takeout container, so long as they have everything they need inside and there are some ventilation holes to let air in. My main concern with a mantis in a Tupperware is just that mantises need to hang upsidedown to molt. You could always just glue some mesh to the inside of the Tupperware lid, so the mantis could use that to hang and molt. Aside from that, so long as the mantis has enough space and sticks and stuff to climb and move around and do mantis things, a Tupperware might be just fine.
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If this is indeed in Maryland, releasing it outside in winter is likely a death sentence, anyways, so it’s actually safer in the Tupperware.
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I just know I tried to keep a beautiful little mantis I purchased as a baby that I kept in a Tupperware container but unfortunately it passed away not long after it became an adult. The lid was perforated so that it could hang upside to molt but I should have gotten a butterfly tent to keep it instead.
So I was just advising based on my personal experience…… I didn’t know about the “mantid monkey business!”
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I’d say Africanized Honeybees are probably the best insect to think of that became problematic because of invasive bees.
Also… Look at Florida. Along with invasive insects like the red fire ant… You have invasive iguanas, Burmese pythons, Cuban Frogs, retics, cane toads, snakeheads and lionfish…and that’s only part of the list.
Edit: I also just remembered lantern flies and Juro spiders are big invasive insects in the news lately…
And there’s also the invasive Toxic hammerhead planeria
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Holy cow Christina! But yeah it all makes perfect sense to keep the mantis! One down and a zillion to go! 
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